EJ Landscape Assessment Report and Webinar
The Tishman Center recently released a new report titled Environmental Justice Movement: Priorities, Strategies & Just Transition. The report is a product of an invitation made by the Northlight Foundation in 2018 to explore leadership models that would be well suited to support the Environmental Justice Movement and its efforts to tackle climate change and inequality. Before beginning to design the program, the team wanted to hear directly from the EJ movement about current conditions, needs, and visions for the future of movement impact. We wanted to learn what leaders would hope to gain from a fellowship program.
The landscape assessment included in depth, semi-structured interviews, a literature review and an online survey. 167 people responded to the survey with 70% self-identifying as a part of the EJ movement. 48 interviews were completed with representatives from 39 different organizations across the country. The interviews and surveys explored some of the key elements of social movement effectiveness, including base-building, narrative and culture change, and collaborative work in the movement. Below are a few of the key findings of the report:
Climate Justice is a top priority for the EJ movement. As the movement continues to contend with a broad array of local environmental issues, they are also forced to address the growing climate emergency exacerbating existing inequalities.
The EJ movement prioritizes grassroots organizing, base-building, and coalition-building as central strategies to achieving their goals.
EJ leaders expressed a need for space to think strategically, to work collaboratively and find ways to build power in the movement, and to experiment with innovative ideas and tactics.
In collaboration with the Social Movements and Innovation Lab, the Tishman Center is currently in the process of rolling out the fellowship program based on the landscape assessment’s findings and the expressed needs of EJ leaders. One theme that emerged from the landscape assessment was the prevalence of the Just Transition framework as a common framework increasingly used to inform the intersectional work of EJ organizations. EJ leaders used the framework to describe the type of work they are doing, as well as a unifying goal for the movement. The saliency of the Just Transition framework is just one foundation for the fellowship’s model. The program will also be rooted in social movement theory, specifically, how repertoires of contention can be used to scale impact. EJ organizations are already using social movement principles, such as base-building and narrative shifting, for their work. The fellowship will focus specifically on equipping EJ leaders with the resources, skills, and practices needed to generate and scale disruptive tactics, as well.
In the wake of the release of this report, the Tishman Center held two webinars to report back to the EJ activists who participated in the survey and interviews as well as provide more information about the forthcoming fellowship program set to begin in the Fall of 2020. The webinars were presented by the Tishman Center’s Director, Dr. Ana Baptista and were attended by a total of 46 people from both from the EJ movement and other sectors. Participants asked important questions about the program’s design and information from the field. A recording of one of the webinars can be found here.
We also would like to introduce you to Molly Greenberg, our research fellow, who played an important role in the report. She is a full-time Ph.D. Candidate in the Public and Urban Policy program at the New School’s Milano School for International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy. She has broad research interests including scholar activists; social movements, the environmental justice movement and gender justice. Her dissertation research will focus on the role of scholar activists and in engaging the environmental justice movement on the issue of gender as represented and defined by the academy and by the social movements themselves.
Please keep an eye out on our website for more information regarding the development of this fellowship program.